As its title suggests, “Deadliest Catch” chronicles the perilous world of crabbing, as well as the financial and emotional hardships that come with one of the most dangerous jobs on the high seas. The series’ combination of high-octane grit and documentary-style realism has been a boon for the Discovery Channel, which has been airing “Deadliest Catch” since 2005 to millions of devoted viewers. Over the years, there have been plenty of sad moments on “Deadliest Catch,” from fishing vessels going under to crew members struggling with addiction. However, given the high-risk world of “Deadliest Catch,” some of the show’s tragedies tend to fly under the radar, especially when they occur on the job.

From greenhorns who gave it their all and paid the ultimate price, to veterans of the crab game who spent most of their lives at sea, the following cast and crew members of “Deadliest Catch” are no longer with us.

Todd Kochutin

The death of fisherman Todd Kochutin in February 2021 at age 30 was a tragedy for two of the vessels featured on the series. In the Season 17 finale, titled “The Ultimate Price,” we see news of Todd’s accident aboard the fishing vessel Patricia Lee spread to the other boats in the area. Wild Bill Wichrowski, captain of the F/V Summer Bay, nervously waits for updates. The world of crab fishing is relatively small — many of the men featured on the series have worked on more than one vessel, or at least have friends and colleagues aboard different boats, and Kochutin was no different. It was devastating for the whole production when Kochutin was confirmed to have passed.

Kochutin died from injuries sustained in an accident with a crab pot, one of the 800-pound cages used by vessels like the Summer Bay and Patricia Lee to secure their valuable catches. His commercial fishing career, compared to lifers like Wild Bill, had just begun. Even so, Kochutin had faced no small amount of hardship in his short life; according to his obituary in the Anchorage Daily News, he was the last surviving member of his immediate family, having already lost his parents and two siblings. The following year, history almost repeated itself aboard the Patricia Lee when crewmember Francis Katungin was seriously injured in an accident similar to the one that killed Kochutin.

Nick McGlashan

As Wild Bill sits at the Anchorage airport in Episode 9 of Season 17, just 36 hours before the F/V Summer Bay and her crew will begin the Winter 2021 season, he receives a piece of terrible news: His longtime deck boss Nick McGlashan has died of an apparent drug overdose in a Nashville hotel. The news hits the Summer Bay crew hard. Nick was not just a colleague and a friend, but very much an integral part of the vessel’s day to day operations. Bill, as Nick’s captain and mentor, naturally blames himself and laments that he didn’t do more to keep Nick from going home to Tennessee. The rest of the crew, meanwhile, still have a job to do, even in grief.

McGlashan’s struggles with addiction were well-known both to his crewmates and to fans of “Deadliest Catch” — he left the show for a brief period in 2017 in order to get treatment, and returned newly sober. Hailing from a long line of crab fishermen, McGlashan began working the Bering Sea at age 13. He started as a deckhand on “Deadliest Catch,” but soon became deck boss due to his work ethic and depth of knowledge. He was 33 at the time of his death.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Mahlon Reyes

Summer Bay deckhand Mahlon Reyes suffers a leg injury in the Season 16 episode “Bering Sea Crash,” as the crew has been pushed to the brink for 48 hours straight. Wild Bill even falls asleep at the wheel — literally — at the start of the episode. The injury is not the type of thing Reyes can walk off, and Bill has no choice but to return to shore in order for his crewman to receive medical attention. Reyes started out as a greenhorn in Season 8, first on the F/V Seabrooke and then on the Cape Caution before crewing the Summer Bay in Season 16. He was only featured on about a dozen episodes of the series, but was by all accounts a talented fisherman.

Reyes died in July 2020 while in his hometown of Whitefish, Montana. Resting between seasons, he suffered a massive heart attack and was rushed to a nearby hospital, but never regained consciousness. Initial reports did not list a cause of death beyond his cardiac arrest, but a toxicology report released several months later — and just a week after Nick McGlashan’s death — confirmed that the 38-year-old’s heart attack was caused by an accidental cocaine overdose.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Phil Harris

One of the series’ first breakout stars was Captain Phil Harris of the F/V Cornelia Marie. After a brief appearance in the first season, Harris took center stage starting in Season 2 along with sons Jake and Josh, the latter of whom took over the Cornelia Marie after his death. Television stardom came late to the irascible, chain-smoking Harris, who had been working on fishing boats since the tender age of seven and started crabbing as a teenager. Operating out of Seattle, he ran his first vessel at age 21, making him the youngest captain on the Bering Sea at the time.

In January 2010, as the show was filming its sixth season, Harris suffered a massive stroke while at port in St. Paul Island. He was flown to a hospital in Anchorage and placed in a medically-induced coma. Despite emerging from the coma with some brief signs of improvement, he died of an intracranial hemorrhage in February 2010. His stroke and subsequent hospital stay were captured on camera by the production and featured in several Season 6 episodes. At the end of the season, Josh returned to the Cornelia Marie to pick up where his father left off, and Discovery aired a tribute episode to the late captain. Harris was 53 at the time of his death.